When the "solution" is the problem!

[my80malibu]

James, I hear ya!

I'm sure the Illinois program is more a scam than anything else. First of all, they only test cars in the Chicago and St. Louis metro areas. If you live in Rockford, or Springfield, or the Quad Cities. or Champaign-Urbana, or Peoria, or anywhere else except metro Chicago or St. Louis... no testing! You can drive the biggest polluter in the state, belching black smoke and carcinogens like an old locomotive... hey, no problemo! We're only worried about cars that pollute the air in Chicago and St. Louis. Anywhere else in Illinois, free pass!

And as if that wasn't ridiculous enough... if your car pollutes the air so much that it fails the test, you get another shot. And another. And if you fail the test three times... you're exempt!!! If your car spews so much pollution into the air that it fails the test three times, hey... you're good to go!

My tax dollars at work...

Here they only test Cars in the "Containment area" which is the Phoenix metropolitan area Primarily, and the Tucson sector. In Tucson the region is different "not located in a Valley" so they only check for three pollutants and Non intrusive test on OBD models

[Greg Wann]

I moved to Arizona in 2000. They gave me a drivers license that is good till 2023. This year they decided to make everybody come in and get a new license with an updated picture. CHA CHING! Another $12.00 per person. Another way to suck more money out of everybody to fatten the state piggy bank ontop of the fee for an emissions test. And my new license is still only good to 2023.

[slusher]

James, I hear ya!

I'm sure the Illinois program is more a scam than anything else. First of all, they only test cars in the Chicago and St. Louis metro areas. If you live in Rockford, or Springfield, or the Quad Cities. or Champaign-Urbana, or Peoria, or anywhere else except metro Chicago or St. Louis... no testing! You can drive the biggest polluter in the state, belching black smoke and carcinogens like an old locomotive... hey, no problemo! We're only worried about cars that pollute the air in Chicago and St. Louis. Anywhere else in Illinois, free pass!

And as if that wasn't ridiculous enough... if your car pollutes the air so much that it fails the test, you get another shot. And another. And if you fail the test three times... you're exempt!!! If your car spews so much pollution into the air that it fails the test three times, hey... you're good to go!

My tax dollars at work...

Harry, when l lived in Chicago my dad had to take his pick up thru the safety lane every 3 months l think and they tested his truck exhaust. Since he did not have a camper he had to have a b commercial tag and could not park on city streets. Now that would get him going....

[niteowl7710]

Ahh Tom you just need to ask around to see who your local "Lick 'n Stick" garage is located. The place that charges a flat $20 for the inspection sticker and never even looks at your vehicle. Sure it's illegal, but there's one in every community, because they know what a load of nonsense it is. If course there's the inverse opposite, garages that fail every vehicle for something. Had one tell me I needed new brakes and tires to pass, the only problem was that SAME shop just did my brakes and tires (at my request) 2 months earlier. After I suggested the State Police might want to investigate the place for fraud my brakes and tires were magically O.K. again. Also you moved to the wrong part if PA, the entire state doesn't require emissions testing, only the filthy dirty urban parts.

Edited March 30, 2013 by niteowl7710

[Guest]

They dropped emissions testing quite a few years ago here, I think the air quility is better now than it was then.

[Erik Smith]

I moved to Arizona in 2000. They gave me a drivers license that is good till 2023. This year they decided to make everybody come in and get a new license with an updated picture. CHA CHING! Another $12.00 per person. Another way to suck more money out of everybody to fatten the state piggy bank ontop of the fee for an emissions test. And my new license is still only good to 2023.

In WA, they make you get (and pay for) new plates every seven years because they "degrade and may not be readable". But, for a $50 fee, you can keep your old plates on your vehicle. What?

[my name is nobody]

threads like this make me smile.

thank god I live in Montana.

I lived in a state that required emission testing on vehicles.

what a scam. the best part was reading about all the epic failures

due to the poorly educated help. like putting the rollers underneath the rear tires of a front wheel drive car,

or vice versa- the knuckleheads would put the rollers under the front tires of a rear wheel drive car.

when the policy was first instituted, the accidents were pretty much a daily event.

[crazyjim]

Florida doesn't have emissions testing that I know of. Harry - it sounds like a Cook County thing. Maybe I should have said Crook County?

[Tom Geiger]

Ahh Tom you just need to ask around to see who your local "Lick 'n Stick" garage is located. The place that charges a flat $20 for the inspection sticker and never even looks at your vehicle. Sure it's illegal, but there's one in every community, because they know what a load of nonsense it is. If course there's the inverse opposite, garages that fail every vehicle for something. Had one tell me I needed new brakes and tires to pass, the only problem was that SAME shop just did my brakes and tires (at my request) 2 months earlier. After I suggested the State Police might want to investigate the place for fraud my brakes and tires were magically O.K. again. Also you moved to the wrong part if PA, the entire state doesn't require emissions testing, only the filthy dirty urban parts.

I'm in Exton, Chester County. I'm about a half hour west of Philly. I know I bought here because I'm just outside what is considered "Main Line Philly", just where the housing and car insurance gets cheaper. I do have a small garage I trust. He still charges for the inspections, but I get no grief about repairs etc from him. My daughter just got a new car so I drove her old '99 Breeze back from NJ last night. I will register it in PA for my wife to use for work instead of driving the big Caravan everywhere. From the 2 hour drive, I know something is up in the front end or brakes. I'll actually ask him to check the car out when he inspects it.

[Agent G]

Nevada, inspection every year whether you need to or not.

I find it comical that my '05 Lincoln requires yearly emissions tests, yet I live 110 miles from a nuclear weapon test site.

G

[Rob Hall]

End of the month is always the worst time to go to those places. Here in Phoenix it's every two years....last time I went, I went at 5 on a Tuesday in the middle of the month and was in and out in 15 minutes.

[Rob Hall]

In WA, they make you get (and pay for) new plates every seven years because they "degrade and may not be readable". But, for a $50 fee, you can keep your old plates on your vehicle. What?

That's funny...don't know what the rule is in AZ, but I've seen cars less than 10 years old w/ plates faded so much they are barely readable...

[Harry P.]

Maybe I should have said Crook County?

Oh yeah. Big time.

[Harry P.]

I don't mind the idea of testing... I have nothing against clean air. What gets me is that only the people in metro Chicago and St. Louis have to be tested... they don't do testing anywhere else in the state! Why is it that clean air is important for some people, but not for the rest of them? Either everyone should be tested, or nobody should be tested. This picking and choosing only a couple of areas in the state is nuts.

Farmer Jones downstate can run his old smoke belching pickup all day long, but I have to pass a test?

[Harry P.]

End of the month is always the worst time to go to those places.

Yeah, I should have known better. I'll go back in a week or two.

[niteowl7710]

I don't mind the idea of testing... I have nothing against clean air. What gets me is that only the people in metro Chicago and St. Louis have to be tested... they don't do testing anywhere else in the state! Why is it that clean air is important for some people, but not for the rest of them? Either everyone should be tested, or nobody should be tested. This picking and choosing only a couple of areas in the state is nuts.

Farmer Jones downstate can run his old smoke belching pickup all day long, but I have to pass a test?

Well like I mentioned to Tom not all of Pennsylvania requires emissions testing. I live in a county deemed as rural, but I live a whopping 28 miles south of Pittsburgh, and if you drive around the top end of the county is slowly sprawling into suburbs. Which makes for interesting interactions with people who want to flee Pittsburgh, put their kids in our schools, but get all bent out of shape that farm tractors drive down the road and people open burn their trash. But that fun urbanite yuppy vs. rural families that have been around since the township was founded is another topic...

[Ace-Garageguy]

Unfortunately there's widespread technical incompetence and outright ripoffs everywhere you go in the automotive service industry, and it's only encouraged by government knee-jerk responses and often illogical and contradictory laws written by folks who don't actually know (or think it's necessary to know) why or how an internal-combustion engine operates.

It's just the way it is.

Edited March 30, 2013 by Ace-Garageguy

[Aaronw]

I don't mind the idea of testing... I have nothing against clean air. What gets me is that only the people in metro Chicago and St. Louis have to be tested... they don't do testing anywhere else in the state! Why is it that clean air is important for some people, but not for the rest of them? Either everyone should be tested, or nobody should be tested. This picking and choosing only a couple of areas in the state is nuts.

Farmer Jones downstate can run his old smoke belching pickup all day long, but I have to pass a test?

It is about population density Harry. Looking at a population density map of Illinois, most of the state has less than 250 people per square mile, probably half the state has less than 25. There are a few areas with 5000+ per square mile (the cities). So all the Farmer Jones' in Podunk County can run their smoke belching pickups that create 50x the polution of your car, but still put less than 25% the polution into the air as those 5000+ areas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Illinois_population_map.png

California does the same thing, the low population counties don't do smog other than initial purchase. I remember what Los Angeles looked like when I was a kid, and it has improved considerably despite population growth, so emmissions laws do make a difference. Unfortunately like all laws there is a lot of stupid stuff that gets in with the good.

[Rob Hall]

Yes, population density...similar situation in AZ...outside of the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas, the rest of state is rural empty w/ a few small towns..

[vintagercr]

Here in Ontario, everyone one has to have their vehicle tested. It does not matter if you live in a large Metropolitan area or not. I think we are like Arizona where a new car is tested after 5 years and then every two years after that. We have shops to go to but we have make an appointment to get it done.

I remember back in 2000 the hassle,I got trying to sell a 57 Porsche Speedster replica I built. The car was registered as an 87 Fiberfab. When I went to sell it, I had to get it e-tested. Naturally, it would not pass and I lost on a sale. I was able to get my hands on a 72 Volkswagen beetle ownership and once I re- registered the car, I did not have to get it done.

I agree it's a cash grab. Now they want to try and bring in a junker law.

[2002p51]

Why is it that clean air is important for some people, but not for the rest of them? Either everyone should be tested, or nobody should be tested.

Because smog testing cars has nothing whatsoever to do with clean air. It's a tax, plain and simple.

[FASTBACK340]

Being a NYS inspector I can vouch on the dyno-testing incidents due to incompetence. That was a horror to complete. You had to follow a "drive cycle" where you accelerated while driving on dyno rollers watching a video monitor, trying to keep the car (a small dot...) between a narrow rising & falling pattern. At the peak speed you were in the 53-55 MPH range strapped to the dyno. All the while having a probe in the tailpipe with the entire exhaust sample running through a V-mass sensor reading data and sending it to the computer. The chances of a mistake or failure was high. It was a huge PITA. And that's if you knew what you were doing. Incompetence occasionally had tragic results.

Today we have evolved to a simple system. Cars up to 2 yrs. old require a $10 Safety Only inspection. Vehicles 25 yrs. & older are eligible too. All other years require an OBD II scan. If you have no engine codes and all the detectable systems are stable, you pass. If your check engine light is on you shouldn't be surprised to fail. It's a simple system. And yes, it's a required $37 per year. And it's hard to scam. The State computer reads the vin. & compares it to the registration scanned. It's car specific....

The NYS emission testing is required in the heavily populated 5 boroughs, meaning the NYC area. Upstate no emissions is required.

Ironically, my Barracuda passes by just having the safety items in working order, tail pipe output be damned!

[FASTBACK340]

I forgot to add, our inspections are done at any NYS registered facility that meets the States requirements. New car dealer, independent repair shop, Pep Boys, Etc. You'll always be at the mercy of thieves and scammers. Chose your repair shop wisely.

The stuff I've seen done that we have to undo is frightening at times..... Ever see a Check Engine Light bulb jumped to light with the Oil Pressure warning light? You know, the light that comes on with the key & always ( hopefully....) goes out when the car starts? I have. Amazing the lenghts some shops will go through to fool the customer into thinking its repaired instead of actually repairing it! This example I personally witnessed, performed by a used car lot. Person came in for his annual inspection with no Chrck Engine Light, but several codes stored that he never knew about because his CEL was by-passed & hot-wired!!!!!

[mikemodeler]

I don't mind the idea of testing... I have nothing against clean air. What gets me is that only the people in metro Chicago and St. Louis have to be tested... they don't do testing anywhere else in the state! Why is it that clean air is important for some people, but not for the rest of them? Either everyone should be tested, or nobody should be tested. This picking and choosing only a couple of areas in the state is nuts.

Farmer Jones downstate can run his old smoke belching pickup all day long, but I have to pass a test?

Find a piece of property to buy outside the 6 county area and register your car at that address and you solved your problems! I know many people in the 6 county area who do just that and smile at the people in line at the emissions testing stations as they drive by!

[Harry P.]

Find a piece of property to buy outside the 6 county area and register your car at that address and you solved your problems!

Solves one problem but creates another: property tax!